Sign up now!!! <\/a><\/p>\nA key change that saw the OWGR finally recognise LIV Golf after nearly four years was the decision to move events from three rounds to four. <\/p>\n
The move has caused a stir within the tour after star recruit Bryson DeChambeau made veiled comments last week about the conditions not being what players \u201csigned up for\u201d.<\/p>\n
Asked about the format change, Garcia said it\u2019s \u201cfine\u201d, but added other grumbles. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen it comes down to prep, obviously it\u2019s an extra day, so it makes the weeks a tiny bit longer,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith travelling so much overseas, it becomes a little bit tougher to be able to get there with enough time to do prep as well as you might want to.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we\u2019ve done it our whole lives, so we know how it is. But it\u2019s good. It\u2019s fine.\u201d<\/p>\n
His Fireballs teammate David Puig, however, was more positive about the shift, saying it better allows the cream of the field to rise to the top. <\/p>\n
\u201cPersonally, I think for the better players of that week, I think it\u2019s definitely better because you\u2019ve got to perform better for an extra day to actually win the tournament or finish high,\u201d Puig said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think (with) the three-day, that first round was really important. If you started really well, you obviously had a chance to win, but you weren\u2019t guaranteed to finish high. But obviously the chances of you finishing pretty high was easier.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the other hand, if you had a pretty poor first round, then you were kind of battling the next two days to crack the top 10 or top 15, whatever. I think it\u2019s more fair and it\u2019s just better.\u201d <\/p>\n
Smylie makes dream LIV debut with win | 01:45<\/p>\n
\u2018I\u2019D TAKE ANOTHER\u2019<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Garcia was asked for his view on renewed commentary about the PGA Tour\u2019s Players Championship being the world\u2019s \u2018fifth major\u2019, and how it stacks up to similar claims about Australia being worthy of its own elevated event. <\/p>\n
This week, Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee caused a stir by saying the Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass might be the greatest tournament in the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn every single way that a metric could be used to measure whether something is a major, the Players, to me, stands alone and above the other four major championships as not just a major. It is, in my estimation, the best major,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Garcia\u2019s LIV Golf colleague Lee Westwood was stunned by the comment, posting on X: \u201cI\u2019m worried about Brandel. Someone check on him please\u201d.<\/p>\n
Asked for his own reaction, Garcia, a champion at Sawgrass in 2008, said he was hesitant to comment on other tours.<\/p>\n
Nonetheless, he added with a smile: \u201cI\u2019ll be happy to claim a second major, obviously, if that happens.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hideki thrown off by rowdy crowd | 01:25<\/p>\n
Pressed on whether Australia deserves more recognition off the back of successful LIV tournaments in Adelaide, and last year\u2019s bumper Australian Open at Royal Melbourne, where Garcia featured, the Spanish great was unequivocal.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, definitely, without a doubt,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s so many places in the world that you have a great golf following. Obviously Australia is one of them. They\u2019ve shown us the excitement and how much they love the game of golf.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cI feel like this event is a great event. You have some amazing young players (with) great potential. You have some stars that have been in the game for a while. You have some that are playing at a great level like Jon (Rahm) and some others.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that the Australians should be super, super happy about what they have at the moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately, I don\u2019t think they\u2019ve had a consistent field like this one year in, year out, like (LIV\u2019s) been doing for the past four years. That\u2019s nice to have.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sergio Garcia has weighed in on the debate surrounding LIV Golf\u2019s recognition by golf\u2019s peak world ranking body,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":469697,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[239912,1724,64,63,108977,239910,179562,238319,236015,9239,5506,65310,189813,2105,755,11775,1745,42328,941,1204,239906,239907,235212,48014,239911,239909,236386,11544,14640,6952,239908,85,239079,12000,235216],"class_list":{"0":"post-469696","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-amazing-young-players","9":"tag-asia","10":"tag-au","11":"tag-australia","12":"tag-brandel-chamblee","13":"tag-bumper-australian","14":"tag-david-puig","15":"tag-debut-event","16":"tag-decision-reaction","17":"tag-eastern-asia","18":"tag-elvis-smylie","19":"tag-format-change","20":"tag-francois-nel","21":"tag-getty-images-inc","22":"tag-golf","23":"tag-golf-channel","24":"tag-golf-news","25":"tag-jacob-polychronis","26":"tag-japan","27":"tag-lee-westwood","28":"tag-lifetime-exemption","29":"tag-miss-putt","30":"tag-peak-world-ranking","31":"tag-playoff-hole","32":"tag-rankings-points","33":"tag-rival-claim","34":"tag-riyadh-golf-club","35":"tag-royal-melbourne","36":"tag-saudi-arabia","37":"tag-sergio-garcia","38":"tag-single-way","39":"tag-sports","40":"tag-unruly-crowd-behaviour","41":"tag-western-asia","42":"tag-world-ranking-body"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469696\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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